Weekend BBQ Basket: Save Up to $20.57 Across 4 Stores

A weekend BBQ shouldn't cost a fortune. Sausages, rolls, a bottle of sauce, some lettuce and tomato, it's simple stuff. But simple doesn't always mean cheap, and the price gap across the four major Australian supermarkets on this exact basket is bigger than you'd expect.

We built a 12-item BBQ basket and priced it at Coles, Woolies, Aldi and IGA this week. Here's what we found.

What the whole basket costs at each store

If you did your entire shop at one store, here's what you'd pay:

• Coles: $61.25
• IGA: $63.56
• Aldi: $53.19
• Woolies: $49.68

Woolies comes out cheapest as a single-store shop, beating Aldi by about $3.50. Coles and IGA are both sitting over $61, so if you're heading to either of those by habit, you're leaving real money on the table.

The cherry-picked basket, buying each item at whichever store has it cheapest, comes to $42.99. That's a $6.69 saving compared to doing it all at Woolies, and a $20.57 saving compared to IGA.

Where the biggest price gaps are

A few items in this basket have price differences worth actually thinking about.

Tomatoes (1 kg) are the starkest example. IGA has them for just $0.76, which is genuinely cheap. Coles and Woolies tend to price fresh tomatoes higher, and over summer when tomato prices swing around a lot, that gap can be meaningful. If you're making a salad for eight people and buying two or three kilos, you'd notice it.

Hot dog rolls (6 pack, x2) are another one. IGA is cheapest at $1.25 per pack, which for a BBQ staple is a solid price. Rolls are the kind of thing people grab without checking the ticket, but across two packs the savings add up.

Thin beef sausages (1 kg) sit at $3.99 at Aldi. Sausages are the centrepiece of the whole basket, and a dollar or two off per kilogram matters if you're feeding a crowd and buying multiple packs. Coles and Woolies both price their equivalent sausages higher than Aldi this week.

The potato chips multipack (6 pack) is also worth a mention. Aldi has it at $1.49, which is noticeably cheaper than the equivalent at Coles or Woolies. Chips are an easy add-on that most people don't price-check, so that saving is basically invisible until you're looking at a comparison like this one.

Where the prices are basically the same

Not every item has a dramatic story. Tomato sauce and BBQ sauce (both 500 ml) are cheapest at Aldi at $1.85 each, but the difference compared to Woolies isn't dramatic enough to drive a separate trip. Same goes for sliced white bread at $3.00 from Aldi, Woolies and Coles aren't far off on bread most weeks.

American mustard ($2.20 at IGA) and iceberg lettuce ($2.00 at Woolies) are items where you're splitting cents between stores. The coleslaw mix at $1.99 from Aldi is fine, but again, not a price that changes your plans.

Tasty cheese slices (250 g) at $3.49 from Aldi are worth grabbing while you're there, but it's not the sort of thing you'd cross town for.

Honestly, about half this basket is within 20-30 cents across the main stores. The savings that actually move the needle are concentrated in a handful of items, mostly at Aldi and IGA.

Is the cherry-pick worth the extra trip?

This is where you need to be honest with yourself.

The cherry-picked basket saves you $6.69 compared to doing it all at Woolies. That's a real saving, not a rounding error. But it probably means stopping at two or three stores, Woolies for the lettuce and any items where they're competitive, Aldi for sausages, chips, sauces and cheese, and potentially IGA for tomatoes and rolls.

If you're already passing an Aldi on the way to Woolies, that split is basically free. A lot of people already do this without calling it cherry-picking. But if Aldi is out of your way, adding a second stop to save $6.69 is a harder call. Factor in your time, petrol, and whether you'll end up buying extra things you didn't plan on (the Aldi special buys aisle is a real financial hazard).

For most people, the better move is to choose either Woolies or Aldi as your main BBQ shop and accept you're not getting the absolute best price on every line. Woolies at $49.68 or Aldi at $53.19 are both reasonable outcomes for a full BBQ basket without the faff of multiple stops.

IGA at $63.56 is hard to recommend for this basket unless it's genuinely your only local option. The convenience premium is real, but over $13 more than Woolies for the same basket is a lot.

Who should shop where

This isn't one-size-fits-all, so here's how it breaks down by household.

Families feeding a crowd will get the most out of Aldi for this basket. Sausages, chips, sauces and cheese are all competitive there, and when you're buying in volume those per-unit savings multiply quickly. Worth doing the Woolies run for fresh produce if the Aldi veg quality feels variable that week.

Couples or smaller households doing a casual backyard BBQ will probably find Woolies easiest. The basket is cheaper there than Coles without any extra effort, and you're not buying so much that the per-item gaps become painful. One trip, done.

Budget-first shoppers who don't mind planning should cherry-pick. Aldi for the packaged goods, IGA for the tomatoes and rolls if there's one nearby and it's this cheap. The $42.99 cherry-picked total is genuinely the best outcome if you're willing to work for it.

IGA shoppers, if it's your local, you know the deal. Convenience costs money. This basket is $63.56 there, which is the highest of the four stores. The tomatoes and hot dog rolls are actually cheapest at IGA this week, which is a bit unusual, but the rest of the basket doesn't favour it.

One more thing before you go

Woolies winning a full-basket comparison over Aldi is worth paying attention to, it doesn't happen every week. Aldi tends to be cheaper on packaged and processed goods, but Woolies occasionally edges ahead on produce and bread pricing. Checking the basket total before you shop, rather than assuming, is how you actually save money over a year.